Process knitters enjoy the time when they start a new project the most. I'm a product knitter and I most enjoy the feeling just before I finish up something. I'm starting to have that glow from St. Enda as I'm almost at the shaping on the top front piece. Then I seam and add neckline and I'm done. In fact the minute I woke up this a.m I had a wonderful feeling of knowing I'm almost finished with another sweater. Seeing my finished items really makes me happy and gives me a sense of accomplishment.







I've been thinking a little about my next sweater. I have the Tiur yarn to make the Dale of Norway Kashmir sweater but I hope I can restrain myself. Poor Trondheim is languisihing not because I don't like the design or colors, but because the Emu Superwash DK reminds me too much of acrylic. Yuk. Still, I need to finish Trondheim so I'm probably not going to start any new sweaters for a while. I have been checking out Eriskay in Alice Starmore's Fisherman's Sweaters. I'm not sure it is complicated enough to keep my interest but I have some yarn I could use for it and I think I'd wear it often.

Frostrosen & Nordasno Mittens

So far I've done four of the Nordic Fiber Arts mitten kits. Here are the Frostrosen mittens done in Rauma Finullgarn. I've also done Rosebord, Solhav, and Nordasno. I love the designs but the fit of these mittens is odd with excess mitten at the fingertips. I tried to change the design to make the mittens the right length with less-than-wonderful results on the Nordasno mittens as seen here.




Recently I found out that this extra length is apparently traditional. From Carol Rasmussen Noble's Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves,

" It was during World War II that women's mittens were introduced into Shetland with the influx of Norwegian refugees. Norwegian people usually wear mittens with stars on them; gloves are less popular. Suddenly in Shetland, mitts became popular and have remained so.

Rather than making a mitten that really fits the hand well, Shetland knitters make them very long to accommodate their design preferences - they need more room on the mitts to include the double motif they're so fond of...

To wear the mitts properly, you pull them down a ways on your arm, and they tend to flop a bit at the fingertips."

Well there you go. It seems Shetland (and I'm assuming Norwegian) mittens are supposed to be too long in the hand. Who would have guessed?

I really like Knitting Fair Isle Mittens & Gloves and am thinking of making the Tartan fingerless gloves next. They are the perfect project for knitting while watching my favorite tv show set in the gorgeous highlands of Scotland, Monarch of the Glen on BBC America.

Virtual Yarns now has a kit for my favorite Alice Starmore sweater of all time - Lismore from Celtic Collection. I could buy yarn for 2-3 sweaters for the price of the kit though. The colors are slightly different in the VY version but I think I like the new colors better (look at the cushion colors to see the difference).













I don't really knit with mohair a lot and I'm not sure I like spinning it either. But it definitely dyes up beautifully as this photo shows. The colors were more brilliant on the mohair than on the merino top. I suspect I'll enjoy spinning this more and the eventual yarn can always be used for a Spontaneous Scarf.



For those of you who live in the area, May 17 and 18 is the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta at the fairgrounds. Not as exciting as Maryland Sheep & Wool of course, but it is better than nothing. The feature display this year at the Fiber Arts Fiesta is a huge bead quilt to commemorate Sept. 11 done by hundreds of beadworkers around the world. I doubt they'll let me take pictures to put on the blog but I'll bring a camera to perhaps photograph some of the demos.

Harald Mittens

My knitting box is empty. We had a perfectly lovely anniversary weekend with several couples from several states in attendance. My friend Mariellen from Colorado chose the red Spontaneous Scarf after trying them all on several times and then going to find a mirror to make her final decision. My friend Joelle chose the Harald mittens and the blue/green Spontaneous Scarf which kind of matched it. I decided to keep the brown Spontaneous Scarf for myself. Here is a photo of the blue/green Spontaneous Scarf in progress.






Here are both Harald mittens together one last time. I'd like to knit more things for Joelle - she loves fiber and attends Taos Wool Festival every year just so she can buy some more hand knit hats and socks and mittens. Mariellen asked for the St. Enda - I'll have to see if it fits DH first. I ordered Folk Vests and was already planning on finding something in there to make for her.

I'm almost done with the third pattern repeat (out of five) on the front of St. Enda. I'm going to have a lot of uninterrupted knitting time at the end of this week so I may try to finish this puppy by next week.

Blogger and I are apparently having a disagreement so I'm going to try to post this entry all over again.









I'm working on spinning two skeins out of some striped Easter egg dyed Merino roving. I painted the strips with different color dyes then wrapped it in plastic wrap and zapped it. . I'd like to make the Spin-Off Sideways garter stitch gloves with the yarn if I can ever get over my current boredom with garter stitch.



I'm also spinning a finer yarn from spotted roving which was done by dripping spots of dye on various locations but leaving a lot of the roving undyed. This yarn will be Navajo-plyed but I'm not sure what I'm going to knit with it.



I need to come up with a good idea to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary this weekend. Doesn't being married 19 years make me sound old? I'll just tell everyone we got married when I was five years old. Yeah, right.

You know how you have cravings for chocolate that just won't quit? Lately I've been craving intarsia of all things. I can't seem to stop thinking about starting an intarsia project. I refuse to start another sweater so it will have to be a smaller project. I may end up ordering a Borealis landscape sock kit . Or perhaps I'll just ignore this craving altogether.



My current WIPs are the Trondheim sweater (on the 2nd sleeve and sadly neglected the past few weeks) and St. Enda which I'm rolling along on and should finish within a month.







I received this beautiful cotton lace facecloth from Kate in Somerset, U.K., in an exchange a few years back. Isn't it terrific?

Vine Lace Scarf

My Lenten stash diet is over at long last. I ordered a headband kit from Bea Ellis. I chose the Telemark pattern in a raspberry and dark gray. I also ordered a Philosopher's Wool sock kit from Camilla Valley Farm in the fall colorway. I have the book Foot Notes by Joseph Madl and may do the alligator's tooth pattern.

There is one type of knitting I don't do very often and that is lace knitting. Check out Catherine's gorgeous hand spun lace vest HERE. I really wish I could do that type of knitting because I love lace and I'd certainly wear it. And I even like spinning laceweight yarn. Unfortunately I find lace knitting requires a lot more concentration that color knitting and I'm not sure I really enjoy it. Here is the last lace item I made - a scarf in a vine lace pattern using some Blackberry Ridge laceweight wool.

Have you seen Elsebeth Lavold's web site yet? She has kits for items not in her book Viking Patterns for Knitting - check out the accessory kits HERE. I'm going to send an email stating I'd like the Lodose mitten pattern (with fun double cables) in English. I probably could get by with the Swedish pattern - the chart is really what I need.



I'm reading Vivian Hoxbro's Domino Knitting (What a tiny tiny book - I'm glad I got it out of the library instead of purchasing it. I think I'll buy the Horst Shulz book instead.) and I'm now planning to use up some unwanted Lamb's Pride superwash worsted oddballs to knit up some of the samplers into hotpads. I have some odd colors of Lamb's Pride which I'd like to use up. I've never been a great fan of this yarn after a pair of cabled socks I made almost disintegrated in the washing machine. I'm looking forward to trying a new knitting technique.







Every year at Taos Wool Festival I go straight to the Elsa Sheep & Wool booth and buy some of the softest, most brilliant white yarn. It is Cormo (a hybrid of Corriedale and Merino?) and it is amazing. I did not dye it in my recent Easter egg dyeing adventures because I want to keep it white and I don't want to compromise its incredible softness in any way. I occasionally think of using it for those wonderful Austrian-patterned knee socks in Socks, Socks, Socks . Does anyone else lust after those socks or is it just me? I'm not sure I want to spend that much time on a pair of socks that are just going to get holes in them sooner or later.

I'm rolling along on St. Enda finally - I'm about 1/4 done with the front. The reason I dislike honeycomb stitch is because I always make mistakes doing it. Originally I did the honeycomb stitch using a cable needle and now I do it without a cable needle and the mistakes happen either way. I think I just lose my concentration or something.



My next Starmore sweater will be Aranmor without the huge collar. I have an image of some soft purple heathered wool for it but I'm not sure where I'll find this dream yarn.



Here is Snickerdoodle the Holland lop and his best friend Bosco the Himalayan cat relaxing on a blanket. Besides this blog I maintain a web site - it is Four Corners Bunnies at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/nanetteb and if you're in the Four Corners area and want to adopt a house rabbit, check it out. This time of year there is always an excess of abandoned pet rabbits.

I enjoyed the link from Wendy's blog to her reader's page of knitting tips. I use several of the tips mentioned (like wrapping the yarn around the needle to gauge what length I'll need to start the long-tail cast on and using my circular needles for straights). I really liked Valerie M.'s tip of making a link of coilless safety pins for the sleeve increases (removing one and placing it on the knitting each time you decrease). When you see all the safety pins at once you can then change how you space the increases if you so desire. Now I just have to buy some safety pins.



Here are some of my own knitting tips. I always do the sleeves of a sweater first - that way if your gauge is off even after doing a gauge swatch or you don't like the colors or pattern there is less to rip out. Once I'm past the ribbing and there are too many stitches for double-pointed needles I switch to two circulars. I simply knit all the stitches on one circular (any length) and then knit all the stitches on the second circular. A good tip I learned in Janet Szabo's finishing book is to change the ribbing order so that there are always knit stitches on each edge of ribbing and you can easily seam them using mattress stitch.



I think I've already touched on some of my organizing solutions on this blog previously - a cheap fishing tackle box from Walmart for my accessories and a Circular Solution double-pointed needle holder. I use plastic pencil cases and a three-ring binder for my circulars.



I've tried many ways of knitting socks that are more durable. I once spun up some Navajo-plyed Shetland that wore like iron - I guess it was the three plies that helped. Once I tried using the heel stitch on the entire bottom of a sock. Here is a photo of how the shape of the sock changes when you do that. I still have the socks after about 5 years and I'm extremely hard on socks.

Here is a photo of the oak niddy-noddy DH made for me. Isn't it wonderful? I am hoping to talk him into making me a book charkha from the directions in an old issue of Spin-Off.



I really love Spin-Off. I find more knitting creativity and inspiration in this magazine than in any knitting magazine. For instance, the Spring 2003 issue of Spin-Off has an article on knitting long strips, coiling them, and sewing together to make sweaters that fit. It is a refreshing change from all of the "beginner garter stitch scarf on size 13 needle" stuff in most of the knitting magazines. I don't know how all these new knitters are going to become experienced knitters if they never have any advanced or complicated or exceptionally creative designs to inspire them.



Not much knitting to report except about 1 1/2 rows on St. Enda this weekend. I hope to do more spinning as the weather warms up. Perhaps I'll have some time this week to take my wheel out onto our wonderful back patio and spin up some alpaca.

Since yesterday I've started and abandoned a project and started yet another one. The abandoned project is the Multi-Cultural mittens for my friend Joelle from The Joy of Knitting. This book reminds me a lot of another book I have checked out from the library - A Passion for Knitting. The Multi-Cultural mittens were done in alpaca from a design similar to one in the Komi mitten book which I gave away. For some reason the design kept reminding me of a swastika and the pattern committed the Cardinal Sin of multi-color knitting on the thumb gusset.



What is the Cardinal Sin of multi-color knitting you ask? Writing out the color design instead of charting it, i.e., knit 2 color A, knit 3 color B, and so on. The pattern on the body of the mitten was charted so I was unclear why the pattern suddenly went south like that.



My newest project is a garter stitch rectangle. Yeeha. Actually I have chosen a design for the kid's knitting class. It is the tie hat in a Passion for Knitting and I'm sizing it down for worsted weight yarn. I think I'll stripe it also. You knit a garter stitch rectangle, sew up one end, and do a really easy tie by casting on and binding off 60 stitches. Then tie up the hole on the top. I like this because it is quicker than a garter stitch scarf and the hats can be pretty flexible about size because you roll up the cuff. It seems like the perfect first project and from there I'll tailor the projects to the individual kids.







Here's a close-up of St. Enda. I've mainly enjoyed it but for some reason the honeycomb stitch (two center panels between the 3 cables) annoys me. I noticed when I was looking through my Alice Starmore books the other day that I was purposely picking a future sweater that did not have honeycomb stitch. I hope to actually have some St. Enda knitting to report when I return to my blog on Monday.

I am so excited! I'm going to teach knitting one day a week to kids and teenagers, age 10-18, who are in treatment foster care. One girl already knits dishcloths and the rest just want to learn. I have to get fingerprinted first believe it or not then the class will start after school ends. I've been thinking about projects and I think I'll knit up a few possible items and have each kid pick what they want to do. One possibility will certainly be a Spontaneous Scarf. A few of my students may be disabled so I will try to offer a wide variety of projects for different skills. I'm going to go through my stash tomorrow and pick out some fun yarns and needles they can use.









Here's a photo of my knitting organizer. It is a fishing tackle box I bought at Walmart for less than $3 and I really like it. It holds my Burt's Bees lemon cuticle cream, tapestry needles, stitch markers, Eucalan, bobbins, crochet hooks, hand cream, measuring tape and other odds and ends. I don't know why but I am not knitting as much lately. I think it is because of my lack of knitting-related purchases for Lent. Perhaps buying new things makes me more motivated to knit? Ah well only 1 1/2 more weeks.



I did sneak over to Elann today. I know I'm just torturing myself by even looking but those discounted Bryspuns caught my fancy. I'd probably break them though. I used to have a wonderful collection of Balene double-pointed needles (now going for huge sums on Ebay) but I broke most of them over time. They felt so wonderful in the hands and had really neat points.

The blue/green Spontaneous Scarf is done. I have the yarn for a purple one and I'm wondering though if I might not enjoy a purple Spontaneous pillow more. I'd use this technique for an afghan (DH keeps requesting one) but I'm worried about knitting an afghan I have to hand wash. I guess it is no big deal.



I got a fun book from the library - 100 Afghan Squares to Knit by Debbie Abrahams. Essentially this book is a collection of blankets and throws done in individual squares. I don't know why I couldn't just do something like this with the various stash yarns I'm using up for the scarves. Just pick a particular size for each block then use stitch patterns, patterned knitting, etc., to make a bunch of blocks and seam them together. It sounds kind of fun and in the book she even has beads and sequins in some of her afghans. I'm not sure how well those would work on the couch but I really think I should try to be more creative and just start knitting stuff up. I did see how she seamed her afghans and she uses the mattress stitch and the fake kitchener (Montse Stanley's name) to seam together tops of rows to each other.







Here is St. Enda in progress. I've decided I want to finish by mid-May - I think I can do the front piece and the collar in a month if I don't get sidetracked. DH has been busy lately so there will be more uninterrupted knitting time.

It was actually snowing flurries here today. Here are some pictures of our yard with snow. The Sandia mountains are completely invisible in the distance.























New Mexico is unusual in that it is a southern state with some incredible fiber resources. The Taos Wool Festival is the highlight of my fiber year every fall. Last year we also managed to visit Tierra Wools in Los Ojos on our trip to the festival. In Taos there is La Lana Wools which offers yarns and fibers dyed with natural dyes. There is also Weaving Southwest where I go just to lust after a Rio Grande spinning wheel every year.



Santa Fe has an incredible textile collection in the Neutrogena Wing in the International Museum of Folk Art (if you're in the area check it out just to see the gorgeous ancient indigo dyed Japanese firefighter's uniforms) and Miriam's Well offers the Santa Fe School of Weaving. There are also several neat fiber arts galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe including Thirteen Moons Gallery. Apparently they are only one of a handful of fiber arts galleries in the country. One time we visited Thirteen Moons we saw baskets made out of fish skins and quilts made of paper.







Espanola has the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center which offers demos and classes and supplies. Victory Alpaca Ranch in Mora has a gift shop and ranch tours of their 1100 acres. I haven't even managed to make it to these last two places yet.





Here in Albuquerque we have the most incredible LYS, Village Wools. Their class schedule is amazing and highlights local fiber pursuits with Navajo weaving and Spanish Colonial Colcha embroidery classes and even classes on how to make baskets out of pine needles. The Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta takes place Memorial Day weekend at the fairgrounds. I've been to this event previously; the show is mainly art quilts but has some knitting related vendors and some fun hands-on demos like silk painting and bobbin lace.



These fiber resources are just the tip of the iceberg here in the Land of Enchantment.

Here's my most recent FO - the Harald mittens from Viking Patterns for Knitting in Tahki Sable (70% wool/ 30% angora). I did them in size 3 needles and think the size needles called for is an error. I did the cable pattern twice, not once, on the cuffs and they're quite nice. I'd really like to do more fun patterns from this book. I'm not sure who will get these mittens yet so they go in the knitting box.







And here's the brown/neutral Spontaneous Scarf. This photo shows the mixture of yarns a bit better than the last one but I still need to get a close-up.



Not much knitting to report lately I'm afraid (the blue green Spontaneous Scarf is going slowly for some reason) but I hope to get back to St. Enda this week. I just got some new knitting books out from the library and I'll report on them this week also.

Spontaneous Scarf

Yep - that is a Spontaneous Scarf you see! The pattern is in the Winter issue of Spin-Off but basically you cast on until you're sick of casting on, then knit in seed stitch lengthwise with a different yarn each row. Go wild and use up all your odds and ends of different fibers and weights. I add on the fringe as I begin & end each side - I just tie a knot every four ends. I just love these - totally mindless knitting but fun to constantly add new fibers and play around with colors. In fact I'm using my Tracy Eicheim spindle right now to spin up some single play mohair/wool hand-dyed wool just to use for another Spontaneous Scarf. Bet you can't knit just one.

Today was a gorgeous day so I sat outside and combed out a lot of the gray alpaca fleece. It is full of VM (vegetable matter - i.e., hay, burrs, etc) so it is best to do this outside. As I was combing I would occasionally let some fly loose in the wind. The neighborhood birds are going to have the softest nests. I still don't know what I'll do with this alpaca when it is finally processed into yarn. Well I'm off until Monday! Hopefully there will be some excellent knitting time this weekend.

Blogger is having problems and I can't get images up. So you may have to wait a little longer for the photos of the Spontaneous Scarf.

QUARTERLY REPORT





My purpose for doing this blog is to become more productive and to keep a better record of my fiber experiences. At the end of 2002, I was dismayed to find I had 3 sweaters on the needles and two more planned and my knitting output for the year hadn't been great. And my stash was getting too large and unfocused.



Since the first quarter of 2003 has passed I thought I'd do a quarterly report for the first quarter for 2003 to keep me honest.



Items Finished:



1.Child's mittens - my own design after a friend requested them

2. Meida's mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia for a friend

3. Fuzzy Feet in stash wool for DH

4. Dale of Norway Sirdal cardigan for myself

5. Traveling Stitch vest

6. Red Spontaneous Scarf to use up stash wool for knitting box

7. Brown/Neutral Spontaneous Scarf for knitting box

8. Harald mittens from Viking Patterns for Knitting for knitting box



Items in Progress:



1. Alice Starmore St. Enda

2. Dale of Norway Trondheim

3. Green Spontaneous Scarf



Other Things Accomplished:



1. Combed and spun 1 bobbin of gray alpaca

2. Dyed yarn and fiber in Easter egg dye

3. Abandoned the Best of Show socks from Socks, Socks, Socks (3 colors every row was getting annoying).

4. Possibly abandoning some other future planned projects - DH says he's not sure he likes the Vogue Knitting Map of the World afghan and I may not do the spring socks from Socks, Socks, Socks.



Future Planned Projects:



1. Entrelac socks from Spin-Off socks book

2. Dale of Norway Kashmir sweater

3. Alpaca mittens for Joelle

4. Several more Spontaneous Scarves (you can't knit just one!)

5. Alice Starmore's Celtic Keynot Pillow

6. Make a complete inventory of stash yarns and fiber and books